Partners in Leadership

Access. Experience. Judgment.

About Ridgeway Partners

Ridgeway Partners is a global advisory firm specializing in executive search, board appointments and succession planning for a select group of multi-sector, domestic and international companies. With offices in New York, Boston, London and Hong Kong, and research support across the world, our network is truly global.

Our success is driven by our access, experience and judgment. We differentiate ourselves by our completion rates and the positive experiences clients and candidates have working with Ridgeway. Our focus on a limited number of clients gives Ridgeway the widest pool of candidates from the best companies. A partner leads each assignment which brings wisdom and experience to the table. Finally, given our substantial access at the executive level, we receive candid insights resulting in better assessments which allows for better judgments of candidates.

Our clients range from privately held companies to Fortune 100 companies. We ensure that our retained clients receive a premium level of service to optimize the performance and capabilities of their people. We have built long standing relationships with our clients because of the exclusivity of the relationship we offer, our responsiveness, our discretion and our track record of success.

Areas of Expertise

executive search

We find exceptional senior executive talent for our clients, spanning large, multi-national companies to smaller, private equity-backed portfolio companies. Most of our work is based in the US and Europe, yet our reach is truly global; we’ve completed assignments in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

We take pride in partnering with our clients to ensure they have the appropriate leadership to take their firms to new heights.

board appointments

We work with Fortune 100 companies, family offices and charities on both corporate and advisory board functions.

We assist pre-IPO companies recruit non-executives to successfully go public. We help large and small companies introduce women onto their boards. We work with companies that need to internationalize their boards. We assemble advisory boards to assist our clients fortify their digital strategy and penetrate new markets.

assessment & succession planning

Corporate boards need to plan for the future. Who is going to run the company when the team moves on or the Chair retires? These are issues that Ridgeway is equipped to help solve.

We assess the strengths of an existing team, identify potential gaps in the board’s collective skill set and provide our clients with a solution.

Case Studies

Finding the first Chief Financial Officer for a body new to the private sectorexecutive search

The Role

A former government body that had moved into the private sector needed a new chief financial officer. They had used another search firm and failed to find one. We were well known by the new senior team at the client. They trusted us to do what was a difficult assignment.

What Was Needed

The salary was less than the market rate so candidates had to be attracted by the mission of the business more than the compensation.

The Solution

The previous firm had suggested casting the net wide. We suggested a rifle shot approach and this was the key to solving the problem. We spent time working out what the successful candidate might look like by understanding the ethics of the business and who they would appeal to.

Regulatory approval was then needed but the appointment was made. We were awarded the Head of Strategy assignment subsequently.

Helping a retail client get up to digital speedexecutive search

The Role

A leading company in the retail space asked us to find a director with a background in technology. The client chose us because we understood the intricacies of the retail and digital markets in a way that other executive search firms did not.

The client found our approach to be insightful, imaginative and persuasive. It brought new ideas to the table and was not just a rehashing of previously completed work.

What Was Needed

Ridgeway provided creative ideas on potential candidates to help fit the client’s needs. We not only had a knowledge of the established leaders in the space, but the up-and-comers with fresh perspectives.

The Solution

Early in the search, a clear front runner emerged so the primary objective changed to keeping the candidate motivated while we sourced other potential talent pools.

The successful candidate started the new role just four months after the start of the search.

Encouraging a Fortune 500 company to look further afield for a new board memberboard appointments

The Role

Our client, an engineering and machinery business, is the market leader in its sector. The board wanted to add a non-executive director. It wanted expertise on how to manage businesses across several countries and business cultures.

What Was Needed

Location was flexible and candidates did not need prior board experience. The client's preference was for a chief executive, business unit head or commercial director from another service company but we persuaded them to look at functional heads in supply chain, procurement and IT as well.

The Solution

The successful candidate was a female in a supply chain and procurement leadership role at one of the largest engineering groups in the industry. It was her first board and non-executive role.

Identifying future talent sources for a bankassessment and succession planning

The Role

An emerging retail bank asked us to identify future potential leaders for their organization. The analysis covered the primary functional roles within the bank. The client wanted us to identify five to six possible future hires.

We were approached by the Chair and subsequently established a close relationship with the HR department and helped prove that Ridgeway was up to the task, despite the fact that they had a long-standing relationship with a competing search firm.

What Was Needed

In addition to being tasked with finding other companies with similar corporate cultures, we were asked to identify potential candidates without approaching them. The client recognized our efforts to 'get inside' the company's culture to source the most appropriate candidates. We simultaneously completed two board assignments for the client.

The Solution

The work was completed ahead of schedule and the client appointed a Head of Risk, one of their primary goals for the year.

Assessing the existing team for a financial services clientassessment and succession planning

The Project

A leading credit house asked us to assess its senior team. We pitched for the business against a leading international firm. The client was conscious of its own image problems and the obstacles they would face in attracting top-tier talent. We were awarded the assignment because we understood the culture of the firm and the dilemmas it faced.

What Was Needed

We worked with an independent industrial psychologist to assess the candidates’ personalities and motivations. The client liked how we conducted the assessments and felt involved in the process.

The Solution

The senior team was interviewed and underwent psychometric tests conducted by the psychologist.

This process identified the potential successors by analyzing each team member’s personality. It not only confirmed the client's instincts but uncovered things they did not know about their own people. Those assessed were also very positive about the exercise and felt it was truly beneficial.

Diversity

Ridgeway Partners is deeply committed to diversity in order to help our clients drive revenue and create effective, dynamic, global workforces. Since 2010, 39% of our placements in the U.S. have been diverse. Our record has placed us as one of the most highly accredited signatories of the 30% Club.

Latest News

The Ridgeway Partners 2018 Future of Boards Report is here

The Ridgeway Partners 2018 Future of Boards report is available for download below.

The Ridgeway Partners 2018 Banking / FinTech Board Report is here

Regina Glocker joins Ridgeway as Partner in the New York Office

Ridgeway Partners is pleased to announce the addition of Regina Glocker as a Partner in our New York office. Regina specializes in executive searches within Banking and Capital Markets and the Three Lines of Defense for financial institutions, FinTech companies, private equity portfolio companies and other corporates. She has developed specific expertise in placing diverse senior leaders in Risk and Audit roles and in Quantitative Analytics functions that are in high demand given new and ever-changing regulatory requirements.

“Regina is more than a recruiter,” says Andy Hunter, Managing Partner for Ridgeway. “She’s a proven trusted advisor to senior management. We are excited to have her join the Ridgeway team.”

Regina brings over 20 years of executive search experience to Ridgeway, most recently as a co-founder of Exchange Place Partners, which joined Hedley May in 2017. Before starting her search career in 1997, Regina sold derivatives and debt capital market solutions for Chase Securities and worked as an Investment Analyst at Aetna. She has an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MPPM from The Yale School of Management.

Ridgeway Partners is a global advisory firm specializing in executive search, board appointments and succession planning for a select group of multi-sector, domestic and international companies, with 11 Partners across offices in New York, Boston, London and Hong Kong.

Charles Preusse Profiled by Tuck School of Business

Charles F. Preusse II T’95 was an investment banker for 20 years before being recruited to Ridgeway Partners, a global executive search firm, eight years ago. Why the change? In investment banking he saw that the two critical drivers of a company’s success are capital and people. Preusse always enjoyed most the personal and social dynamics of what made a transaction work. Now, as a partner at Ridgeway, Preusse is a matchmaker of strategic talent: he works with his corporate clients as they build their senior management teams to position themselves for success. He and the team at Ridgeway are among the best in their business—their successful placement rate of 98 percent is peerless in their industry. “What really differentiates us is our ability as an international boutique to be incredibly focused on our clients,” he says. “The partners do the work. When you hire a Ridgeway partner, you get the partner.”